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Dining

Colorado's Copper Mountain Resort is poised to win the hearts of a new generation of skiers by giving them what they really want: a kick-ass mountain.

It's a clear, blue day in early March. A few thready clouds stretch out thin on the horizon. We’ve hiked a quarter mile from where the snowcat dropped us and are catching our breath at the top of Tucker Mountain. The patrol “dumpster” is the only structure—an ugly rectangular box marring an otherwise lovely view of the pyramid peaks of the Ten Mile and Mosquito ranges. The steeps of Copper Bowl, Fremont Glades, and the gastronomically named Taco and Nacho splay out below—50-plus-degree pitches packed with cold, chalky snow.

Take an afternoon break this season at these new on-mountain hot spots.

• Garbo’s Grill is a new joint inside the Carleton Lodge, at base of Whistler Mountain, focusing on burgers with 20 topping choices, including sauces, cheeses, and veggies.

• Canyons Resort unveils the new, improved Cloud Dine at the top of the Dreamcatcher and Dreamscape quads. The 300-seat venue boasts a menu of made-to-order salads, sandwiches, and flatbread pizzas plus delicious pastries and coffee drinks.

This Canadian resort might be skidom’s best-kept secret. And with two new expansions, it’s also the biggest.

The “glasses” at Red Mountain’s first annual Beer Goggles Craft Brew Festival hold only three ounces. Which is, apparently, enough. Keri Bascetta, SKI’s staff photographer, and I are standing around in ski clothes in a party tent on a wood-chipped parking lot with, well, pretty much everyone within a 50-mile radius of the place, drinking tiny beers and laughing our butts off. We are freezing, but we don’t care. Snow has started to accumulate outside—a light dust that coats the plastic tent windows and picnic tables.